Safety leadership implementation involves the utilization of multiple tools at different density levels to achieve maximum retention, application and anchoring of safety leadership skill sets. These tools include classroom training, hands on, boots on the ground in-field coaching and access to an extensive pool of tailored operational safety, leadership and management resources which include:
Safety Performance Tools
Safety Leadership Development Matrix
The Safety Leadership Development Matrix is a tool which considers the behaviours and practices required from managers and supervisors to create a safe work environment. The coaching matrix is also a valuable reporting tool during the term of an Engine Room project to discuss coaching progress and strategies on a weekly and monthly basis.
The Safety Leadership Development Matrix fundamentals methodology is predicated on the belief that best in class safety performance occurs when the combination of safety strategy, safety leadership, safety process, safety communication, engagement, and safety execution converge. Critically, no single item is the “silver bullet” that will overcome weakness in the other areas. Some implications are as follows:
- Since organizations and individual managers have different strengths and weaknesses, The Engine Room believes it is critical to assess each situation to understand the root causes for different conditions before proposing strategies to support performance improvement.
- For individual managers to be successful in their roles, they must be able to operate effectively within all the safety operational excellence pillars (strategy, leadership, process, etc.), with equal ease and gaps in any area represents opportunities for improvement and development.
- Safety leadership competencies will have different dimensions at different levels (executives versus front-line supervisors) to reflect the differing scope of management functions. Therefore, how different managerial levels operate in each area (strategy, leadership, process, etc.) is tailored to the specific level of leadership.
Cascading Safety Matrix
The cascading safety matrix is an organizational alignment and accountability tool used to create full vertical and horizontal calibration on safety and operational objectives. It is used in collaboration with HR and Safety business partners to ensure error reduction and human performance focus areas are aligned to existing corporate goals, metrics and behaviours; thereby accelerating safety performance.
Field Observation – FOE (Focus of Effort)
The Field Observation FOE is a frontline supervisor observation tool which guides leaders in properly conducting high quality work-site safety visits. It considers all the error reduction elements leadership need to consider to properly assess risk, including observation of employee work habits, communication, behaviours, job sequencing, job execution, and physical conditions.
Safety Habit Identification Pareto
The Safety Habit Identification pareto is a tool that identifies and prioritizes the most common workplace errors through pareto analysis, and aligns workforce and leadership focus on the specific habits that will mitigate the potential for errors in prioritized focus areas. It is a proprietary error reduction continuous improvement system focused on safety leadership, and can be applied in the boardroom and the field.
Safety Activity Quality Audits
Safety Activity Quality Audits are continuous improvement tools used to improve the quality of safety activities executed by leaders, both in and out of the field. The audit process considers all aspects of a specific safety activity and rates the activity from 1 to 5 by answering targeted questions and documenting key observations. The auditor is meant to be a fly on the wall, and not change the dynamic of the safety activity, but provide timely and thoughtful feedback.
Safety Due Diligence Report
The Safety Due Diligence Report is a reporting practice of inviting a respected party within the organization to generate a safety report suitable for submission to executives. This safety report evaluates the efficacy of error reduction, safety leadership, and safety processes by evaluating the quality and rigour around safety activities in the field. The report combines hard data and informed opinion about the quality of safety activities to provide a balanced view of safety practices and performance.
Safety Business Review
The Safety Business Review is a guided, continuous-improvement meeting tool that brings together frontline supervision with management on a monthly basis to review safety performance, metrics, reporting, behaviours, and best practices, with a focus on frontline execution and application to create sustainable safety performance.
Safety Sustainment Plans
All Engine Room projects are intended to leave the client’s organization with sustainable processes that continue to deliver value long after the engagement has been completed. To accomplish this objective, the later stages of every project are described as the sustainment phase. During the sustainment phase of the implementation, the Engine Room coaches decrease their level of participation with individuals or in specific focus areas to provide client supervisors, managers and employees the opportunity to practice learned skills or, in effect, to “fly solo” with supportive feedback. Common output during the sustainment phase include:
- Building individual safety leadership sustainment plans
- Anchoring leadership skills, competencies, and behaviours that were coached
- Tying skills to organizational metrics (such as the Safety Due Diligence Report)
- Management support sustainment practices (Safety Business Review)
